Jose Azel likes to travel. That is probably why he studied in Ithaca and in Missouri before landing a staff position at the Miami Herald, based in Florida. But that was certainly not enough for him, as he soon became one of National Geographic's and Time magazine's favorite photographer. As much as he loves to travel in the natural world, he also enjoys traveling in the world of thoughts and ideas. While he might always be physically on the go, he is also always mentally on the go.

In 1993, he created Aurora Photo, a photo agency with like minded photographers, mostly of the National Geographic class. While it took off quickly and gained a strong reputation of quality, he couldn't just leave it alone. In the 90's Jose Azel was already busy working on where photography would be in the near future and plunged full steam ahead in digital. He was one of the first, for example, to offer immersive photography to the burgeoning online magazine. Not afraid to experiment, he opened Aurora to various business models, including the so oft despised Royalty free.
Today, Aurora has 200 contributing photographers who work more like a tightly-netted extended family, even if they are all free lancers and proudly independent. Beyond traditional stock images, Aurora offers full video multi media production and also has a full assignment desk. Aurora Photos is based in Portland, Maine with offices in New York and California.

The first work submitted by Aurora is from new contributor, Maria Vittoria Trovato called "Ships and the Sea". The winner of the Parallelozero's Photojournalism contest did a long term essay on cargos and the life aboard. The 29 year photographer, based in Syracuse, Sicily has documented the experience of these giant floating structure along with the humans aboard. With this exploratory work, Trovato seeks to show the relationships between the people who work and live on these man made mammoths and the steel that surrounds them

You can see more of Aurora's images on their website here : http://www.auroraphotos.com/
and contact them here: http://www.auroraphotos.com/contact.shtml

If you are a photo agency and would also like to participate to this weekly column, please send a note to Paul Melcher at paul.melcher@lalettredelaphotographie.com